Blog Post 1: Eō nā 'opio o Hālau Kū Māna

Eō Nā 'Opio O Hālau Kū Māna

This is my 2nd year teaching at Hālau Kū Māna PCS.  I am teaching pre-algebra, trigonometry/precalculus, and physical science.  In addition, I am teaching Papa Hana No'eau (Hawaiian Arts) with my co-teacher Aunty U'i  and our community practitioner, Uncle Wes and am a senior project advisor. 

For my physical science class (10th grade), I am having my class experience a year long project that has a topic of Finding Solutions to Environmental Issues/Sustainability Through Indigenous Cultural Practices.  Through their place-based inquiry project days (PBI), reading The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert, watching The 11th Hour, etc., they will be able to embark on a class project that allows them to identify an environmental problem that they would like to find a solution, implement their solution, document it, assess it, and present it to their parents and the community at the end of the year. 

I was able to post this project on DonorsChoose.org, where I requested for 5 iPad minis.  I wanted my students to be able to use technology that would give them an opportunity to take pictures/videos, create a class website, record music, make a presentation, conduct research, etc.  Fortunately, this project was fully funded and I was given these iPad minis this past week.  I want them to start taking pictures and documenting what they do in their PBI.  In addition, I was also able to get funded 18 scientific calculators through DonorsChoose.org.

We have started our PBI for Papa Hana No'eau (Hawaiian Arts).  Our students were assigned a la'au (plant) that they will have to malama in the mala.  Some of the la'au that we are taking care of is hall, olena, ko, ulei, koai'a, la'i, a'ali'i, pia, 'uala, wauke, and naupaka.  We teach our haumāna to malama their la'au because they will be using all of these for their hana, whether it be for weaving, la'au lapa'au, making lei, and food.  They are taught that if we malama the 'aina as a resource, it will give us what we need.  

Our students were able to gather the wood they need to make their ko'i in Ualaka'a and Nu'uanu.  We were able to to have them connect to the area and to follow protocol when they enter a place and to mahalo the 'aina for its resources that it provided.  We were able to soak the ko'i in the kai at Ala Moana, which helps prevent terminates from eating the wood.  They also started making their blades for their ko'i. 

'Anakala Wes (Uncle Wes) is our community practitioner that we have created a close partnership.  He brought some ohi'a, keawe, and iron wood for our students to make their i'e kuku.  Our students were able to use modern tools (sander, planer, chisel) and traditional tools (ko'i, traditional drill to make holes, mano niho) to make their lines and watermark on their i'e kuku. 

We were able to bring our students to Bishop Museum to talk to kupuna that practice hana no'eau (feather lei making, basket weaving, kapa making, lauhala weaving, etc.) and to learn about the traditional arts that are displayed in Polynesian Hall and Hawai'i Hall.  

In my content classes (pre-algebra, trigonometry/precalculus, physical science), I have been trying to incorporate aspects of STEMS2 in my lessons.  In particular, I was able to teach coordinates, coordinate planes, and scatter plots in the context of finding relationships with Hawaiian Units of Measurements.  In my physical science class, I wanted to teach motion (calculating speed, graphing distance vs. time) through data collection of finding the speed of Makiki Stream.  I feel through real-life data collection and analysis, my students can retain the content better instead of learning the content with just arbitrary numbers.